I know I say this every few months, but I honestly prefer my old
computers to more contemporary ones. I like being able to single-task. I
like communicating on my own time. I like being master of my own machine.
I like knowing exactly WHAT is on my system at any given time. I like
being able to run an efficient, useful, floppy-only system.
Getting that hard drive working with my TRS-80 Model 4P was a fun
little exercise, although it hasn't yet changed the way I use the system.
Right now, it's alleviated a lot of disk swapping and RAM disk usage, and
made data transfers between different computers a bit faster. However, I
haven't really TRIED to do anything different. The truly fun part is the
increased potential the 4P now has. What I'll DO with that increased
potential, I don't know, but as I explore the system and tinker, all will
become obvious.
My ultimate goal is to have my Model 4P online without using
another computer (including my Raspberry Pi) or mobile device as an
intermediary. I can already do this by connecting the 4P to my Cisco
router via console cable, but I'd love to make use of a serial-WIFI
adapter to eliminate a connection. I've been told some serial-WIFI
adapters have a telnet client built into the adapter's firmware, but the
information comes from my reliably unreliable sources, so...
It'd be much easier to get Angry Red, my Toshiba 5200 portable,
online. Even though Angry Red is a 20MHz 386 with 2 megs of RAM, I have
lots of options available to me. My original plan was to install a 16-bit
ethernet card into the portable's ISA slot, but that plan was scrubbed
whan I opted to install a SCSI card instead. My next plan is to make use
of the Xircom Parallel-to-Ethernet adapter box I bought years ago.
Failing that, I have a couple of SCSI-to-Ethernet adapters lying around
that I could use (if I ever find drivers). Failing THAT, I can install
one of the high-speed serial cards (16550 UARTS!) sitting in my junk box
into Angry Red's 8-bit ISA slot, and use a SLIP connection to another
machine.
Failing THAT, I can use Windows 3.11's TCP/IP stack to dial in to my SDF
account.
